dinsdag 14 april 2020

CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE

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The CIA Built a Heart Attack Gun

●   The theory:
○   The government has developed a gun that can cause fatal heart attacks
●   What really happened:
○   The CIA developed a secret weapon in the 60’s and 70’s
■   A small poison dart was shot out that would cause a heart attack
●   It could penetrate clothing and leave nothing behind except a tiny red dot on the skin, disintegrating on impact
●   The target would feel as if they’d been bitten by a mosquito
●   The poison denatures quickly so autopsy would not indicate foul play
●   Why we know about it:
○   In 1975, Congress investigated the rogue activities of the CIA
■   United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
■   During testimony, the secret weapon became known to Congress

Operation Mockingbird

●   The theory:
○   The CIA is spying on American journalists and controlling the media
●   What really happened:
○   Operation Mockingbird was a CIA operation that spied on members of the Washington press corps in 1963, 1972 and 1973
■   They also paid journalists to publish CIA propaganda
■   This included wiretapping phones as well as observing their offices to track their activity and visitors
○   Wiretapping of civilians is against CIA code
■   At least one part of Operation Mockingbird was done with coordination from the Attorney General, Secretary of Defense and Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
○   Kennedy set the precedent for monitoring civilians, but it was also practiced in the Johnson, Nixon, George W. Bush and Obama administrations
●   Why we know about it:
○   Mockingbird was uncovered by the Church Committee after the Watergate scandal
○   John F. Kennedy secretly recorded Operation Mockingbird conversations in the Oval Office. They are now part of The Presidential Recordings

Poisoned Alcohol

The theory:
●    The FBI poisoned alcohol during Prohibition
●   What really happened:
○   In 1920, the US passed the 18th Amendment of the Constitution, banning the sale, productions and importation of alcohol
■   The Prohibition Era was marked by widespread bootlegging of alcohol
●   Some of this alcohol, made in private stills, had major health risks from heavy metals in the alcohol
○   Could lead to illness and even blindness
●   Industrial alcohols (used in paints, solvents, fuels and medical supplies) were regularly stolen by bootleggers, redistilled and resold
○   These were regularly stolen by bootleggers, redistilled and resold
○   Law enforcement was frustrated that people continued to consume alcohol
■   The government redesigned formulas used to make industrial alcohol undrinkable
●   The new formulas included adding kerosene, gasoline, benzene, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, carbolic acid, quinine and acetone
●   Mandated that up to 10% of total product would be poisonous methyl alcohol
○   The government hoped this method would scare people into giving up drinking
○   Some estimates say that by the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the federal poisoning program had killed at least 10,000 people
●   Why we know about it:
○   New York City medical examiner Charles Norris was very outspoken against the poisoning program
■   1926 NYC: 1,200 became sick from poisoned alcohol, 400 died
●   1927: Deaths increased to 700
■   Norris assigned his toxicologist to testing confiscated whiskey for poisons, finding many of the ones we know about today
○   Public health officials and anti-Prohibitionists, including Missouri Senator James Reed, spoke out against the poisoning program

Cancer-Causing Vaccines

The theory:
●   People may have gotten a cancer-causing virus from contaminated polio vaccines
What really happened:
●   Simian Virus 40 was first found in monkeys in 1960
○   Monkey kidney cell cultures were used to produce the vaccine
○   The SV40 virus has been linked to many human cancers including childhood leukemia, lung cancer, bone cancer and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
■   While SV40 has been found in these cancers, it there is debate as the whether or not the virus actually causes cancer
○   Shortly after it’s discovery, scientists discovered SV40 contaminated some polio vaccines
■   It was reportedly removed from all vaccines in 1963
●   An estimated 10-30 million people may have been exposed to SV40 after receiving polio vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s
○   More than 98 million people received polio vaccines before the contamination was discovered and eliminated
Why we know about it:
●   The CDC admitted to SV40 contamination in polio vaccines
○   In 2013, the CDC abruptly took down its fact sheet on the subject

Gay Bombs

The theory:
●   The military attempted to develop a bomb that would turn the enemy gay
What really happened:
●   1994 – The U.S. Air Force explored the possibility of using pheromones as a weapon
○   A proposal requested a 6-year, $7.5 million grant to see if dousing enemy combatants with female pheromones would cause a biological reaction in troops
■   The proposal suggested that affected soldiers would find their comrades “sexually irresistible” and could potentially lead to homosexual behavior
■   Presumably, the unbearable attraction would render enemy soldiers less effective in combat
How we know about it:
●   The proposal was discovered by a military spending watchdog group through a Freedom of Information Act request